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Daily industrial news and top headlines for plant and maintenance managers

MILWAUKEE (AP) — A federal judge in Wisconsin has ordered NCR Corp. and Appleton Papers Inc. to pay an estimated $700 million to clean a contaminated river, the latest effort to hold paper makers accountable for toxins in the Green Bay waterway.
NCR, based in Atlanta, and Appleton, based in the Wisconsin city of the same name, must share responsibility for cleaning up the most contaminated segment of the Fox River, U.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers hired in February at the fastest pace in almost a year and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9 percent — a nearly two-year low.
The economy added 192,000 jobs last month, with factories, professional and business services, education and health care among those expanding employment.

BHUBANESHWAR, India (AP) — Indian police detained two people after an angry mob of fired workers burned to death a senior executive of a steel factory, an official said Friday.
After learning they were laid off, about a dozen workers attacked a vehicle carrying Radhey Shyam Roy as he was leaving the factory in eastern Orissa state on Thursday, dousing the Jeep with gasoline and setting it on fire, said police Superintendent Ajay Kumar Sarangi.

Today's industrial metal detectors — with better technology and numerous features — now make it possible to consider using them at several stages along a production line, not just near the end before the product is stored or shipped.
In fact, metal detectors should be used wherever there is the chance that ferrous or nonferrous metal particles may contaminate a product stream.

More and more companies are becoming aware of the need for a greener supply chain. A recent Material Handling Institute of America survey of material handling and logistics management found that 79 percent of facilities have instituted or are planning to institute sustainability goals for their operations.

Value Focused Supply Management is an approach for creating and implementing long-term strategies for key purchase categories and their suppliers that goes beyond just competitive sourcing. This concept was presented at the 2010 Institute of Supply Management Annual International Supply Management Conference in a major research initiative by CAPS (Center for Advanced Purchasing Studies) Research and A.

The Beyond platform of high-performance tool grades from Kennametal (Latrobe, PA) is now available in inserts for the company’s FixPerfect system, which promises improved toughness and wear-resistance, resulting in higher turning productivity and safety. The FixPerfect system features a proprietary shaped pocket for high clamping forces, very low cutting forces, chip control, and an improved process stability.

The new PH20 probe head from Renishaw (Hoffman Estates, IL) has a unique “head touch” capability for high-speed point capture with minimal CMM movement. With its infinite positional capability, it increases touch-trigger CMM inspection throughput by up to three times, plus 5-axis inspection capability to smaller CMMs.

LPS Laboratories (Tucker, GA) has announced its 50th anniversary with a limited edition of the United States LPS 1, LPS 2 Industrial Strength Lubricant, and LPS 3 Heavy-Duty Rust Inhibitor. The aerosol cans come with a “retro” look, which is similar to the design of the original cans in the early 1960s.

With incandescent bulbs on their way out, it's a good time to take a look back at the technology that has been almost ubiquitous for decades. Bill Hammack, a professor at the University of Illinois — Urbana, take a close-up view at the filament, which is much more complicated than many of us would have expected.

Now that Volvo is a Chinese-owned company, what does its future hold? CEO Stefan Jacoby says that the company's new focus is China, with U.S. and Europe coming in a distant second, with the new V60 plug-in hybrid leading the charge.
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How can America retain its edge in the competitive world of technological research and innovation? MSNBC visits with Intel CEO Paul Otellini to discuss the various ways in which we're slipping. One of his primary concerns? Losing the educational battle with Asia, which will leave us without skilled workers for decades to come.

Consumer Reports released its report of the best cars on the market, with the Japanese performing exceptionally well. Honda took the top spot, followed by Subaru and—perhaps surprisingly—Toyota. Ford represented Detroit well, but GM and Chrysler? That's another story entirely.
Visit msnbc.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple Inc. is expected to unveil the second generation of its wildly successful iPad Wednesday at a media event in San Francisco.
Apple sold more than 15 million of the original touch-screen tablet computers in the first nine months on the market. An updated device will help the company widen its head start against competitors, most of whom are just beginning to sell their first tablets.

NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures reversed course and pointed to a higher opening Wednesday after a report said that private companies are adding more jobs than economists had expected.
Payroll-processor ADP said that private-sector employment increased by 217,000 from January to February on a seasonally-adjusted basis, well above the 180,000 new jobs that analysts had predicted.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett says the U.S. economy continues to improve and doesn't need as much government help as it is currently getting.
Buffett appeared Wednesday on CNBC four days after releasing his annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway Inc. shareholders.
The CEO says most of the businesses Berkshire owns, except the ones that make housing-related products, continue to inch along and improve.

BEIJING (AP) — A startup California developer of electric cars said Wednesday its first model will be manufactured in China and go on sale in the United States this year.
CODA Automotive Inc.'s four-door sedan will be produced by a Chinese partner based on one of its models that has been adapted for electric drive and to meet U.

GENEVA (AP) — What do you get if you cross Nissan's Leaf electric compact with one of the Japanese car maker's Z-car racers?
Possibly the Esflow, an unlikely mashup the Yokohama-based constructor unveiled at the Geneva Auto Show this week.
On the outside it's all flash, with a gleaming silver aluminum body and sexy sportscar curves inspired by Nissan's long racing lineage.

DETROIT (AP) — A 27 percent increase in U.S. auto sales last month is a good sign for the industry despite political volatility in the Middle East and rising oil prices, a Citi Investment Research analyst said Wednesday.
Analyst Itay Michaeli said in a note to investors that U.S. sales of 990,000 cars and trucks for February came in at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 13.